ASKII CLI ( ••)>⌐■-■ (⌐■■)

AI code assistant for your terminal — ask, edit, explain, run agentic file tasks, drive your screen or a browser, and keep AI-classified notes. Works with Ollama, LM Studio, OpenAI, Anthropic, opencode Go, or ASKII Cloud. Requires Node 18+.

Install

npm install -g askii-cli

# or run without installing
npx askii-cli <command>

Interactive mode

Run askii with no arguments to start a REPL with persistent chat history:

ASKII ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)  — interactive mode

  Platform : ollama (gemma4:e4b)
  Workspace: /your/project
  Wiki     : off

Type a message to chat, /help for commands, /exit to quit.

> what does a closure do in JavaScript?

ASKII: A closure is a function that retains access to variables
from its enclosing scope even after that scope has finished...

> can you give me an example?

ASKII: Sure! Here's a classic counter example...

> /platform anthropic
Platform → anthropic (claude-sonnet-4-6)

> /do add a .gitignore for a Node.js project
[Round 1/5]
...

> /exit
Bye! ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)

Bare text keeps the full conversation across turns (/clear resets it). Tab completes / commands and ↑ / ↓ cycle input history. Bare -- flags update the session config without restarting (--platform openai --model gpt-4-turbo, --max-rounds 10, --mode helpful). Ctrl+C cancels a running agent and returns to the > prompt; at the idle prompt it exits.

| Command | Description | | ------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------- | | /ask <question> | Explicit ask (same as bare text) | | /do <task> [flags] | Run the Do agent (--max-rounds N, --yes) | | /edit --file <path> <instruction> | Edit a file in place | | /explain <text> | Explain a line of code | | /commit | Generate a commit message from the staged/working-tree diff | | /note <subcommand> | Notes / tasks / reminders (same as the note command) | | /wiki-reload | Reload the enabled wiki indexes (docs and/or code) | | /platform <name> · /model <name> | Switch platform / model for the session | | /config | Show session config (keys redacted) | | /clear | Clear chat history | | /help · /exit · /quit | Help, quit |

Commands

Code is read from stdin or passed with --code (--file / --lang add filename and language hints). In PowerShell, pipe with Get-Content myfile.ts | askii ....

ask — ask about code

cat myfile.ts | askii ask "what does this do?"
askii ask --code "const x = 1 + 1" "is this correct?"

explain — explain a line

askii explain "arr.reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0)"
cat myfile.ts | askii explain

edit — transform code

Prints the edited code to stdout — pipe-friendly:

cat myfile.ts | askii edit "add error handling" > myfile-edited.ts

do — agentic task runner

askii do "create a Jest test file for src/utils.ts"
askii do --yes "scaffold a README for this project"    # auto-confirm file edits
askii do --dir ./my-project "refactor index.ts"

Prints the working directory's top-level listing, then loops until the AI returns [] or --max-rounds (default 5):

| Action | Description | Confirm | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | | list, view, search | Explore the workspace (list labels [file] / [folder]) | No | | wiki_search | Semantic vector search over indexed .md docs (needs --use-wiki) | No | | code_search | Semantic vector search over indexed workspace code (needs --use-code-wiki) | No | | create, write, modify, rename, copy, mkdir, delete | Write files (existing files are backed up to .askii/backups/) | Yes | | run | Run a shell command | Yes (always) |

Safety rails that --yes never turns off: run always asks (Ctrl+C or the 30 s timeout kills the command and everything it started); files that can run code — .vscode/, .husky/, .githooks/, .devcontainer/ — always ask; nothing inside .git/ or .askii/ is ever written; paths that escape the directory (../, absolute paths, symlinks pointing outside it) are blocked; a reply cut off at the model's token limit is never applied. When the run ends you can undo every change. The first Ctrl+C stops the agent (and the request in flight) and still offers the undo; a second one exits immediately.

commit — generate a commit message

git commit -m "$(askii commit)"
askii commit --dir ./my-project

Reads the staged diff (or the working-tree diff when nothing is staged), caps it at 12,000 characters, and prints a message styled after the repo's last 10 commits — cleaned of markdown fences, quotes and Commit message: labels, ready for git commit -m.

note — notes / tasks / reminders

askii note add "the API rate limit is 100 req/min"
askii note add "task: fix the login bug, high priority"
askii note add "remind me to check the build in 30 minutes"
askii note add --shot "remember this screen state"   # attach a screenshot

askii note list              # list entries (most-recent first); optional query: askii note list "login"
askii note search "login"    # full-text search
askii note done abc12345     # toggle a task's done state
askii note delete abc12345   # delete an entry
askii note due               # print overdue reminders (marks them fired)

Free text is auto-classified as a note, task (low / medium / high priority) or reminder (with a due time). Entries are stored globally at ~/.askii/notes.json, tagged by workspace, and searchable everywhere. The CLI has no background scheduler — run askii note due to see what's overdue. In the REPL, /note add asks a clarifying question when the reminder time is ambiguous.

control — screen or browser agent

askii control --ollama-model llava "open Notepad and type hello world"
askii control --yes --max-rounds 10 --ollama-model llava "fill in the login form"
askii control --target browser --ollama-model llava "go to https://example.com and click Learn more"
askii control --target browser --headless --yes --ollama-model llava "check the title of https://github.com"

control drives the whole screen by default, taking a screenshot each round and executing returned mouse_move, mouse_left_click, mouse_right_click, keyboard_input or DONE actions. Set --target browser to launch and control a Puppeteer browser with goto, click, type, wait_for, back, forward or DONE actions. You can also set ASKII_CONTROL_TARGET=browser instead of passing the flag. Requires a vision-capable model (e.g. llava, moondream2); screen control on Linux needs xdotool. Without --yes, each action is shown with its reasoning and needs a y confirmation.

browse is an alias for control --target browser:

askii browse --ollama-model llava "go to https://example.com and click Learn more"

Browse drives a Puppeteer browser (visible by default, --headless to hide) with goto, click, type, wait_for, back, forward or DONE. Requires a vision-capable model and a Chromium-based browser — auto-detected (Chrome, Edge, Chromium, Brave), or set --chrome-path / ASKII_CHROME_PATH.

wiki-reload — reload the enabled wikis

askii wiki-reload --wiki-path ./docs
askii wiki-reload --use-code-wiki

Reloads every wiki enabled via flags/env:

• Docs wiki (when --wiki-path is set): splits the .md files by heading and builds a vector index in .askii-wiki-index/ inside the wiki folder. Then add --wiki-path and --use-wiki to inject the top matching chunks into any ask, edit or do:

askii ask --wiki-path ./docs --use-wiki "how do I configure the database?"
askii do --wiki-path ./docs --use-wiki "implement the auth flow described in the docs"

• Code wiki (when --use-code-wiki is set): walks the workspace's code files (code only — no .md/.txt/.json/images), respecting the root .gitignore, and builds a vector index in .askii/code-wiki/. Rebuilds are incremental (unchanged files keep their vectors). Then add --use-code-wiki to inject relevant code chunks into ask / edit and to give do a semantic code_search action:

askii wiki-reload --use-code-wiki
askii ask --use-code-wiki "where is buildDoSystemPrompt defined?"
askii do --use-code-wiki "update the workspace actions to support undo"

Both wikis embed with embeddinggemma2 running locally in JavaScript (Transformers.js + ONNX — no API keys, no external services). The model downloads once (~314 MB) to ~/.askii/models on first use.

Options

| Flag | Env | Description | Default | | -------------------- | ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | -p, --platform | ASKII_PLATFORM | ollama, lmstudio, openai, anthropic, opencodego, askiicloud | ollama | | --ollama-url | ASKII_OLLAMA_URL | Ollama server URL | http://localhost:11434 | | --ollama-model | ASKII_OLLAMA_MODEL | Ollama model | gemma4:e4b | | --lmstudio-url | ASKII_LMSTUDIO_URL | LM Studio server URL | ws://localhost:1234 | | --lmstudio-model | ASKII_LMSTUDIO_MODEL | LM Studio model | qwen/qwen3-coder-30b | | --openai-key | ASKII_OPENAI_KEY | OpenAI API key | | | --openai-model | ASKII_OPENAI_MODEL | OpenAI model | gpt-5-mini | | --openai-url | ASKII_OPENAI_URL | OpenAI-compatible base URL (empty = api.openai.com) | | | --anthropic-key | ASKII_ANTHROPIC_KEY | Anthropic API key | | | --anthropic-model | ASKII_ANTHROPIC_MODEL | Anthropic model | claude-sonnet-4-6 | | --opencodego-key | ASKII_OPENCODEGO_KEY | opencode Go API key | | | --opencodego-model | ASKII_OPENCODEGO_MODEL | opencode Go model | glm-5.2 | | --opencodego-url | ASKII_OPENCODEGO_URL | opencode Go base URL | https://opencode.ai/zen/go/v1 | | --askiicloud-key | ASKII_CLOUD_KEY | ASKII Cloud API key | | | --askiicloud-model | ASKII_CLOUD_MODEL | ASKII Cloud model | askii-default | | --askiicloud-url | ASKII_CLOUD_URL | ASKII Cloud base URL | https://api.askii.dev/v1 | | --timeout | ASKII_TIMEOUT | Per-request timeout in seconds | 600 | | --mode | ASKII_MODE | Response style: helpful or funny | funny | | --max-rounds | ASKII_MAX_ROUNDS | Max agent rounds for do / control | 5 | | --dir | | Working directory for do | cwd | | -c, --code | | Code input (alternative to stdin) | | | --file | | Filename of the code (e.g. src/utils.ts) | | | --lang | | Language of the code (e.g. typescript) | | | -y, --yes | | Auto-confirm do file edits and control actions (never run) | | | --target | ASKII_CONTROL_TARGET | Target for control: screen or browser | screen | | --headless | | Run Puppeteer headlessly for control --target browser | visible | | --chrome-path | ASKII_CHROME_PATH | Browser executable for control --target browser | auto-detect | | --wiki-path | ASKII_WIKI_PATH | Docs folder for wiki RAG | | | --use-wiki | ASKII_USE_WIKI=1 | Inject wiki context into ask / edit / do | | | --use-code-wiki | ASKII_USE_CODE_WIKI=1 | Inject code wiki context into ask / edit / do | | | -v, --version | | Print the version | | | -h, --help | | Show help | |

Unknown options print a warning; invalid values (--max-rounds abc, an unknown --platform) are errors.

API keys: prefer the ASKII_*_KEY environment variables — values passed as --*-key flags are visible to other users in the process list and stay in your shell history.

Exit codes: 0 success · 1 error · 2 invalid usage · 130 stopped with Ctrl+C.

LLM requests time out after --timeout seconds and are retried with backoff on network errors, rate limits (429) and server errors (5xx) — never on authentication or other client errors.

Platforms

# Ollama (default, local)
ollama pull gemma4:e4b
askii ask "what is a closure?"

# LM Studio (local server enabled)
askii -p lmstudio ask "explain this function"

# OpenAI — or any OpenAI-compatible API (Azure, etc.)
export ASKII_OPENAI_KEY=sk-...
askii -p openai do "add error handling"
askii -p openai --openai-url https://my-resource.openai.azure.com ask "explain"

# Anthropic
ASKII_ANTHROPIC_KEY=sk-ant-... askii -p anthropic do "add error handling"

# opencode Go — routes OpenAI-/Anthropic-compatible per model automatically
ASKII_OPENCODEGO_KEY=... askii -p opencodego --opencodego-model kimi-k2.7-code do "add error handling"

# ASKII Cloud — https://api.askii.dev/v1 (override with --askiicloud-url)
ASKII_CLOUD_KEY=... askii -p askiicloud ask "what does this do?"

Development

Part of the ASKII repo (VS Code extension + CLI; shared code in common/):

cd cli
npm install
npm run build   # esbuild bundle
npm run dev     # watch mode

License

MIT